1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to support or mounting systems for holding various types of equipment in a subsea environment, such as electronics or instrument modules and the like associated with oil production installations, subsea communication systems, subsea pumping stations, and the like.
2. Related Art
Subsea nodes are subsea installations which distribute power or send and receive communications between a shore based facility and equipment or instruments installed at the nodes via one or more electrical, optical, or electro-optical cables extending from the shore based facility and the node, and may also send and receive communications between the node and other subsea nodes or installations. Support frames or systems for holding underwater equipment or instruments in a node architecture are sometimes known as node frames, and are typically one of a kind items which are custom designed for specific equipment installations. They are generally of welded construction and produced in small quantity. This makes such support systems costly and difficult to acquire.